S1 E5: From Surviving to Thriving | Diana Ortiz Giron

Born in Mexico and raised in the immigrant embrace of California’s San Gabriel Valley, Diana was nurtured by my mother’s resilience and the rhythms of Spanish-speaking Latino churches. As a first-generation, low-income, and formerly undocumented student, she carried her community’s stories into her studies of History and Latina/o Studies at Pomona College and later into my M.Div. at Harvard Divinity School, where she was introduced to faith-rooted activism and liberation theology. Since then, her work in higher education has centered on cultivating spaces of inclusive learning and collective empowerment. More personally, she is on a long journey of healing her family’s lineage, (and what we focus of this episode) one joyful moment at a time. Driven by her hope to break intergenerational cycles, she hopes to gift her daughter a legacy of courageous compassion for humanity and a more expansive connection to Spirit rooted in ancestral wisdom.